


Falling Ash

by starmagnitudesix



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 05:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2298296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starmagnitudesix/pseuds/starmagnitudesix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lydia is paired with another agent on a mission to capture Kate Argent, she isn’t quite sure what to think. Malia turns out to be a more interesting partner than Lydia ever expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Ash

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Llama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llama/gifts).



> Beta credit to elle_song - thanks for listening to me ramble, hash out plot details, and making sure I actually finished this thing.
> 
> Llama - I had a lot of fun with this, writing for a pairing I hadn't considered before, but really ended up liking. Hope you enjoy!

She’s never been paired with another agent before. She supposes it’s to be expected given the importance of this op, even considering Lydia’s impressive track record over the past three years. Thirteen successful missions. Ten successful kills.

Lydia watches the girl out of the corner of her eye as Braeden briefs them on the operation. The girl’s gaze is intense; she glances briefly over at Lydia when she walks in the room, and the rest of the time she’s been looking at Braeden. The girl’s brown hair hangs down in pretty waves around her face, slightly damp from the shower she must have taken this morning. Lydia runs her fingers along her own ponytail before resting both her hands on the table again, on top of their briefing packets.

“Your surveillance target is Derek Hale, one of the last surviving members of the Hale family.” Braeden clicks forward on her slides and Derek Hale’s face looms on the screen. His face is lined with black stubble, an accusatory look in his green eyes. “The Hales were one of the most prominent families in the country until the accident, five years ago.

“His family was from Southern California, but he has a little apartment up in San Francisco now and stays there most of the year,” Braeden continues. “As far as we can tell, he doesn’t have many acquaintances, or to be brutally honest, even friends. Quite the loner, our Derek.

“As you’ve probably heard, almost all of Derek’s extended family was killed in a fire five years ago,” Braeden says, switching to the next slide of her presentation. It’s a picture of the Hale Estate, after the fire. Their house had been enormous, but with an elegance that Lydia could appreciate, not overly ostentatious. A wall around the property, two bronze wolf statues guarding the entrance. 

“Derek was one of the survivors, along with his two sisters Laura and Cora, and their uncle, Peter. Seems like the kids had wanted to get out of the house and Peter accompanied them, lucky for them all.” Braeden looks over at Lydia for a moment, trying to be subtle, but Lydia can see Braeden’s glance; she doesn’t make a comment as Braeden changes the slide and a woman’s face appears on the screen. “We…recently discovered that the Hale fire was Kate Argent’s doing. You may not know, Malia, but Kate used to be a part of our agency, until she killed the Hale family and went rouge.” Braeden pauses for a moment, an expression on her face that looks like she wants to say more. 

“Sounds like our security could use an upgrade,” Malia says bluntly.

“You also may not know, Malia, that the Argent family originally founded this agency 400 years ago,” Braeden replies curtly. Malia looks nonplussed and shrugs, arms loosely draped in her chair. No afraid of confrontation, this girl, Lydia observes. “It’s tradition a girl from the Argent family joins us, every generation. We were just following code when that we trusted her. 

“As for Derek,” Braeden continues, “he, his sisters, and Peter had a nice enough bankroll to live on, after the fire. Cora took off for South America, while Peter took off for places unknown once his remaining family discovered his more criminal connections. Derek and Laura mostly stayed inside the bounds of the law, bought a house in Los Angeles soon after the fire. Two months ago, Derek moved into his new apartment in San Francisco.” A final switch of the screen, and the outside of Derek’s apartment appears. It’s looks smaller than Lydia had expected, with a dingy tinge she wouldn’t have thought the only son of Talia Hale would have ever lived in.

“We’ve heard chatter to indicate Kate Argent might try to make contact with Derek sometime soon. Your assignment is to surveil Derek’s home and watch for Kate. If and when she does contact Derek, you’re authorized to take her down.”

“Why would Derek ever talk to Kate again?” Malia asks. “I mean, she basically killed all of his family. I’d think he’d be more likely to rip her throat out.” 

Braeden raises on eyebrow at Malia’s last comment, but her voice is steady when she answers. “Derek doesn’t know that Kate started the fire,” she says. “We suspected something when Kate went rouge, but didn’t have official confirmation until recently.” 

“Do we shoot to kill?” Lydia asks briskly, pursing her lips. 

Braeden looks over at Lydia, a thoughtful expression on her face. “No. We know Kate’s been in the criminal element since she left. She may have some much needed intel about some of our other targets.” 

“Remember, Kate Argent is resourceful. She won’t approach Derek without a plan. Be careful, and mind each other’s backs.” Braden looks the two of them over. “Dismissed!”

**

They move into an apartment across the street from Derek’s loft. It’s a small place, given the housing situation in San Francisco these days. There’s a living room in the front with windows that look straight at Derek’s apartment; the long hall extends back almost 50 feet, with a bathroom, laundry room, and kitchen off on the sides. One bedroom, Lydia thinks, and one bed. Guess Malia will have to take the couch. 

Lydia and Malia set up a typical surveillance formation, watching Derek’s loft from both their own apartment and a small cafe down the street. “Two locations will give us a wider range of surveillance,” Lydia tells Malia before she leaves to take her post at the cafe. “I’ll work on my computer so we can keep in touch through the messager program. It’ll be good cover as well, since most people will just assume I’m some tech company employee working off site.”

“So I get to be stuck in the apartment all day? Sounds thrilling,” Malia says. 

“We’ll be switching off. It’s less suspicious than if we alternated days. I’ll take three days in the cafe and two in the apartment, two in the cafe and three in the apartment for you, and one day where we’re both at the apartment.” 

The cafe is relatively quiet. A few people are already sitting at tables, and a woman is in buying a pastry at the counter. Lydia gets herself a latte and takes a seat in a small table in the front, Derek’s apartment in sight across the street. She opens her laptop, calling up the agency’s messaging program, a word document for notes, and her coding window. If she’s going to play the part of a Bay Area techie, the least she can do is actually work on the program she’s coding. 

_so what else do you know about kate argent?_ Malia messages her in the late morning.

_You were in the same briefing I was._

_yeah i heard: armed and dangerous. but what’s her deal? why’d she bail on the organization her own ancestors made?_

_She didn’t exactly come talk with me when she decided commit arson and go rogue._

_well did she talk with anyone? or was she a crazy loner like Derek?_

_She was close to her niece, Allison. And no, Allison doesn’t want to talk about it._

_that’s really helpful. thanks allison._

_Kate was the closest family Allison had. It’s not something she’s obligated to talk about._

_yeah but it would help us actually find kate and bring her down._

_Kate hasn’t contacted Allison since she left five years ago. It wouldn’t be helpful for us._

_but we think she’s going to contact derek?_

Lydia doesn’t type back for a few minutes. She watches a few customers come through the cafe. One of them looks like an actual tech employee. He orders a triple shot espresso and sits down on the opposite side of Lydia, opening up a computer. 

_lydia?_

_Yes. If our intel says Kate is going to contact Derek, it’s pretty likely she will. Kate and Derek have a past history._

_past history? like before she brutally murdered his family?_

_They were dating, if you can call it that. When Derek was in high school. Kate used him to get to the Hale family._

Malia doesn’t type back for a long time. Lydia watches Derek’s apartment, but the blinds are closed and there’s no movement. What is Derek doing now, she wonders. 

_now i really want to get this bitch Malia types an hour later._

**

Lydia and Malia eat together in the evening, after the cafe closes. Malia suggests switching off with meals like they do with working hours. Lydia cooks, chicken simmering in white wine sauce and a salad tossed with tuna, chickpeas, and tomatoes. Malia buys takeout, a different place every night, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Mexican. Lydia insists on plates and utensils and a proper dinner table setting. Malia chows down on food standing up in the kitchen, to go boxes sitting on the counter beside her. She just grins when Lydia rolls her eyes. 

**

The week passes, and the most interesting thing Derek Hale has done is go to the farmer’s market. Lydia follows him and watches Derek buy an assortment of brightly colored vegetables. It’s the middle of the afternoon when _derek hale has seriously been in his apartment all week. this dude needs to get some sunshine appears on Lydia’s laptop._

_San Francisco isn’t exactly the best city for sun. And the insurance info on the Hale Estate was big enough he never has to work again._ she writes back.

_poor guy. all the money he’ll ever need and no one to share it with._

_Your sarcasm doesn’t translate well over text, you know._

_i’m not being sarcastic lydia. having no family is one of the worst feelings in the world_

Well, certainly a personal statement, Lydia thinks. There’s some part of Lydia that is always curious, alway looking, itching for the new, the puzzles, whether it be learning something as obscure as archaic Latin or useful as C++. Curiosity nips at fingers, but she shoves it off and goes back to coding. She doesn’t need to start that conversation, Lydia thinks. Malia probably wouldn’t want to talk about it anyway.

**

Two days later, an older man stops by Derek’s house.

For a moment, Lydia thinks it could be Peter Hale, returned from hiding, but the man turns and Lydia doesn’t recognize him. _Watch the man coming to Derek’s apartment._ she sends to Malia. _I don’t know who he is._

_looks like derek has friends after all wow_ Malia types back. 

Lydia watches the man knock. He shifts a little bit from foot to foot, cradling an old fashioned cell phone in one hand. Nervous, Lydia thinks. Coming by on an afternoon, probably going to get lunch. Older friend of the family? No, agency hadn’t heard of him before. She watches him run a hand through his hair and smooth down his shirt carefully, like he’s already done it a number of times. She laughs to herself. Of course. It’s a date. 

_maybe he has some kind of message for derek?_ Malia sends her. 

_Depends on what kind of message you mean._ she sends back as Derek emerges in the doorway. 

He and the man exchange a few sentences, and then Derek darts in and kisses the man on the lips. She’s far away, but she can see both Derek and the man both look a little surprised. Then the older man smiles and puts his hand around Derek’s waist, and they walk into Derek’s apartment. 

_so guess it wasn’t some super secret message for derek. too bad_

_Maybe one of the reasons he moved in San Francisco._

**

A second week goes by, and still no Kate. It’s Sunday; Lydia and Malia watch from the bay window in front room. 

It’s a moment of boredom, a moment of staring at the same house, the same shingles, that Lydia’s curiosity gets the better of her. “Why did he buy such a run down apartment anyway?” Lydia says.

“Survivor’s guilt, probably,” Malia answers. 

Lydia looks over at Malia, but the other girl is just staring out the window. She doesn’t need to ask Malia what she meant, Lydia thinks. It’s not uncommon for recruits to deal with guilt from their pasts. Nothing new here.

“What do you mean?” Lydia says.

“He doesn’t think he deserves better. They all died and he survived,” Malia answers. A pause. “I mean, that’s what it was for me, at least.” 

“For you?” Lydia says softly, a few minutes later.

Malia doesn’t answer for a while, just stares out the window. Lydia can’t help from watching Malia from the corner of her eye. Her profile is sharp against the light of the window, and she looks younger to Lydia somehow, looking at her like this. Malia’s eyelashes flutter, almost a translucent blonde, in contrast to her dark-brown eyes. 

Lydia’s eyes move down to Malia’s mouth. Malia purses her lips, taking her bottom lip in between her teeth.

“My family were killed in a car crash when I was nine. Mom, dad, two sisters. I wasn't in the car.”

Lydia isn’t sure what to say; she says silent, waiting.

“I was up at the cabin, our cabin. My family was kind of do it yourself freaks. My parents had built the cabin when they were younger, and wanted to bring us kids to live out there. Never happened of course, but they did teach us how to hunt and live on the land and all that stuff when we came up to the cabin every summer. They just didn’t come back to the cabin one day, they’d all gone to take a drive together. I guess I got lost in the chaos of the accident, because no one ever came for me, not in those first few weeks. I never went looking for help either. I was so angry and hurt and I didn’t know what was going it on, it was like…like I turned feral. Like I turned into this monster.”

“Not all monsters do monstrous things,” Lydia whispers quietly.

Somehow, Malia smiles. “You sound like Scott. He was the one who found me. When someone finally came for me after those three months, his name was Scott McCall.” She turned to look at Lydia, eyes shining. “He’s the reason I’m still alive today.”

They look at each other for a moment, and then Lydia pulls Malia into a tight hug. Malia freezes, then relaxes, wrapping her arms tight around Lydia. “I”m so sorry,” Lydia murmurs into Malia’s neck, “I’m so so sorry.”

“I survived,” Malia says. “It’s enough. It has to be enough.” She leans her head on Lydia’s shoulder for a while, both of them watching the apartment across the street. “So,” she murmurs, “what your fucked up life story?”

“I had a relationship with Kate Argent,” Lydia says.

**

Kate comes to Derek’s apartment three weeks after Lydia and Malia arrived across the street. It’s a new moon; Malia almost doesn’t catch the woman walking up the street. Almost.

“Lydia!” she whispers, and both of them go over to the window to look. “Is that her? I can’t tell without seeing her face…”

Lydia watches the woman as she knocks on Derek’s door. “It’s her,” she says flatly. Malia runs off to grab the guns, but Lydia stands at the window, her fists clenched, and watches Kate. Derek opens the door and stands in the doorway for a moment, looking at her. She says something to him, leaning in close, while Derek stands frozen. Kate taps Derek on the shoulder and shakes her head, and then Derek motions for her to come inside.

“Lydia come on, we need to go!” Malia says. She pushes a gun into Lydia’s right hand. Lydia straightens up, relaxes her shoulders.

“C’mon!” Malia grabs Lydia’s left hand and drags her away from the window, down the stairway to the street. Malia holds onto her hand all the way across the street, until they’re standing near the stairs leading up the Derek’s loft. 

They can vaguely make out conversation from inside Derek’s apartment, snippets of talk. “But I don’t under-” and “-family was full of criminals and no one was doing any-” and “doing now-” and “finishing what I started-“ and then a sharp crack and shatter of glass.

“We need to get in there, now,” Lydia says. She hoists her guns and runs up the stairs, checks the door. It opens easily, to her surprise. Kate must really have shook him, she thinks. She pulls open the door and runs in, Malia just behind her.

Kate stands in the kitchen, shards of glass around her feet, a gun in her hand. Derek is sprawled on the ground, his eyes closed; a streak of blood runs down his cheek, dripping from where the glass cut him. The older man stands in the doorway out of the kitchen, holding a gun. “Who the hell-“ the man jumps as Lydia and Malia come in. “Your partners?” he snaps at Kate. His eyes wander back between Kate and Lydia and Malia, unsure where to point his weapon.

Kate glances over at them, her eyes widening. “No, not my partners,” she says, and shoots at the man. He falls on his knee and holds his side. Kate turns fast and shoots at Lydia and Malia, but Lydia pushes Malia out of the way, tackling them to the floor. Lydia gets off two shots at Kate as she sprints through the doorway, but the other woman is too fast. 

“Shit,” Lydia says, pulling Malia up. She turns to look at the man, still on his knees and holding his side. “Go after Kate, I’ll help them in here,” she says to Malia.

“Lydia, I can’t leave-“

“Go!” She yells louder than she intends. “Go after Kate, Malia. I’ll be with there once I’ve got everything under control here.” She looks in Malia's brown eyes, wide with adrenaline. Malia nods and sprints off, out of the room and out the front door.

“Are you alright?” she asks the man, walking over to him. 

“It’s alright, she just grazed me,” the man says as Lydia walks over to him. “Please, we have to see if Derek is okay,” a pained note in his voice.

They walk over to Derek, still on the floor, Lydia supporting the man as much as she can. Derek whimpers as they turn him over, a sound that seems too vulnerable for him, Lydia thinks, and his eyes open. “Stay with him,” she tells the older man. 

“Where are you going?” the man yells after her as she runs out of the kitchen, out onto the street. Where would they go? she thinks. Street is too out in the open, people might come out after hearing the shots. Kate was surprised by the man in Derek’s apartment, hadn’t expected it; she wouldn’t have planned for this. The alley to the left catches her eye, a good play to hide out of the light, and she runs down it.

Kate is standing in the middle of the alley, Malia near the front, both covered in shadow. Kate has her gun pointed at Malia’s chest, Malia points her weapon at Kate’s head. Somehow, Kate has a grin on her face.

The smile remains as she looks at Lydia. “Nice to see you again, sweetheart,”  
she drawls softly. Lydia aims her gun at Kate’s temple, and says nothing.

“I hope you didn’t take my leaving too personally. I can promise, it wasn’t really about you,” Kate says.

“Is that what you told Derek too?” Lydia spits. 

“Shut the hell up,” Malia says. The look on her face is vicious, Lydia sees out of the corner of her eye.

“I see you brought backup this time. Got yourself a new little girlfriend?” Kate sneers. Lydia tightens her hands on her gun. “You did always like brunettes.”

“Shut the hell up!” Malia growls at Kate.

“I’m not scared of you,” Kate says softly.

“You sure as hell should be,” Malia says. 

Kate shifts from one foot to the other, gun still drawn. “I”m not scared of you because I know how this ends. You take me back to HQ, and in exchange for immunity I tell you everything I know, because let me tell you, I know the criminal underworld. The Benefactor? Worked with him a couple of times.” Her smile widens, showing all her teeth. “I can get you Peter Hale.”

Malia shoots, and Kate drops her gun, a shocked expression on your face. She falls to her knees, breath hissing between your teeth. “You didn’t take me into your freaky calculations,” Malia says. “You’re lucky I know where to put a bullet to maim instead of kill.” She turns to Lydia, a expression on her face Lydia can’t identify.

“I’ll call the agency, get a clean up crew out as fast as I can,” Lydia says. “And I need to go deal with Derek inside. Stay with Kate.” Malia doesn’t time to protest before Lydia runs off, back up the stairs of Derek’s apartment.

The older man has Derek sitting in a chair, wiping the blood off his face. “What the hell is it now-“ he says as he hears Lydia running back inside. He swings around, his face going white when he sees Lydia. He stands and picks his gun off the table and points it at her, as she raises hers level to his head, instinct taking over. 

“I don’t know what’s going on but I know there’s no need for violence. Just put the gun down, and we can talk about this,” the man says.

“Stilinski-“ Derek says, his voice rough.

“Put down your gun-“

“John!” Derek’s voice is painful, and Stilinski glances over at him in the chair. 

“Derek knows what’s going on,” Lydia says carefully.

“What is she-?” Stilinski whispers, still holding his gun.

Lydia looks at Derek, and waits for him to speak. 

”Did you kill her?” he asks softly. The expression in his eyes is painful. Kate Argent used him, just like she used me, Lydia thinks.

“No,” Lydia says carefully. “We’re going to bring her in.” She thinks she can see relief in Derek’s face. He nods once. 

“You two are cops?” Stilinski says skeptically.

“Not exactly,” Lydia says.

Stilinski looks unsure; he holds the gun steady, still pointed at Lydia. Derek swallows, watching Lydia’s face. “I need to know. The code.”

“Nous protégeons ceux qui ne peuvent pas se protéger leurs-même,” Lydia says. 

Something eases off of Derek’s shoulders. “You did change it,” he whispers. He turns and puts his hands on Stilinski’s arm. “We need to let them go.” he says gruffly.

“Derek, we can’t do- we just heard a shot and we don’t what the hell happened to that woman, we have to call the police-“

“Stilinski.” There’s a pleading in Derek’s voice that Lydia feels uncomfortable hearing. He looks at Lydia again. “What do you need us to say?”

“Kate broke into your apartment, attacked you and Stilinski. Stilinski fought her off but she escaped. You don’t know where she ran off to.”

“Derek, why should we trust her? She’s not a cop but she’s got a gun, clearly has tactical training-“ Stilinski doesn’t move, his gun still trained on Lydia.

“Please,” Derek says. “Trust me.” 

Stilinski looks over at Derek, hunched over in the chair, and softens. He lowers the gun, slowly. “I still don’t trust you,” he says to Lydia. “But go before I change my mind.” Lydia leaves the house, shutting the front door carefully behind her, not before she here Stilinski say “You better not make me regret that and tell me what the hell is going on-“ 

**

They bring Kate back to headquarters, snarling all the way. Debrief happens immediately, Lydia and Malia in a room with too bright light and Braeden who keeps asking question after question. Malia does most of the talking, shooting glances over at Lydia once in a while. Near the end of the session, Malia takes Lydia’s hand, hidden underneath the table, and gives it a squeeze. Lydia squeezes back, and doesn’t let go until the debrief is over.

It feels like days, not hours, when Lydia finally stumbles back to her room and falls asleep, not bothering to change out of her mission clothes. She spends the next day getting her life back into order: cleaning her room, doing the laundry for all the clothes she brought along on the op, organizing her mission notes. 

She's fallen into a rhythm of folding clothes, not think about anything much at all, not her next mission, not what she needs to do tomorrow, not even that look in Kate’s eyes, when there’s a knock on her door. Lydia opens it to see Malia standing in the hallway.

“Can I come in?” Malia says.

“Of course,” Lydia says, smiling. They sit on her bed, and for a moment, neither of them says a word.

“I’m pretty bad at conversations like this,” Malia says, “but I wanted to ask… with Kate and the mission and everything. Are you okay?”

“I’m honestly not sure how I feel,” Lydia replies. “It was hard after Kate left, disappeared without a trace, and then once we learned why she had left and what she had done… I can’t believe I was ever involved with someone like that.”

“She’s freakishly manipulative, that’s for sure,” Malia says. “And not just with you, but with Derek too.”

“She fooled a lot of people,” Lydia says. She quirks her lips. “Maybe it bothered more than I wanted to admit. That I wasn’t able to see the plan she was setting. But I’m a survivor, just like you.”

Malia grins. “Us survivors have stick together, right?”

“We do,” Lydia says, “and it doesn’t mean I can’t understand other things in my life. Like you, for example.”

“Like me?” Malia says, surprisingly soft.

Lydia runs her finger up Malia’s arm. “That I can see you’ve got quite the crush on me, operative Malia.”

Malia smiles. “I’m pretty good with feelings, but I don’t exactly know how the rest of this goes.”

Lydia leans over and kisses her. “That,” she says with a smirk, “is how we start.”


End file.
